If the universal is the essential, then it is the basis of all life and art. Recognizing and uniting with the universal therefore gives us the greatest aesthetic satisfaction, the greatest emotion of beauty. "
Piet Mondrian
Emotions and artworks seem to be strongly linked since artists and writers try to trigger intense emotional response from their readers or their audience and the public often reacts to a film, book, painting, sculpture in a very emotional way before starting to ponder over the artistic value of what they have seen or read, suggesting that emotions are deeper than reason. Although means to reach this state of emotion and communion are many, some artistic and literary movements seem to be more closely connected to the expression of feelings.
Thus we can wonder how artists and writers manage to arouse emotions and how we are motivated to pursue, and find value in, an emotional engagement with artworks even when much of this includes affective states that we generally count as negative or even painful ?
Thus we can wonder how artists and writers manage to arouse emotions and how we are motivated to pursue, and find value in, an emotional engagement with artworks even when much of this includes affective states that we generally count as negative or even painful ?
Expressing emotions
Watch this extract from Jane Eyre ( Cary Fukunaga- 2011) .
drive.google.com/file/d/1vxXwkqxVCFyGZlVtk5CljzFFKAyeeFi5/view?usp=sharing
Focus on the way the director conveys a feeling of uneasiness and attraction.
Which role is meant to be played by art both in the novel and in the film?
Then turn to the poem by Emily Dickinson and say how the poetess uses imagery, sound and metaphors to tell a story or create an impression .
drive.google.com/file/d/1vxXwkqxVCFyGZlVtk5CljzFFKAyeeFi5/view?usp=sharing
Focus on the way the director conveys a feeling of uneasiness and attraction.
Which role is meant to be played by art both in the novel and in the film?
Then turn to the poem by Emily Dickinson and say how the poetess uses imagery, sound and metaphors to tell a story or create an impression .
a_bird.docx | |
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poems-of-emily-dickinson-emily-dickinson.pdf | |
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The playwright , Tennessee Williams is famous for the tortured characters he created. Watch this extract from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
drive.google.com/file/d/1optj5mOvVlUj1hGQsy_k2JYm48yB97rk/view?usp=sharing Study the way the couple is presented. Do they look like a couple? Why (or why not) ? What do the dialogues tell us ? How symbolic is the setting? What about the characters moves and actions ? How can you account for the title of the play? Comment on the movie adaptation of the play and the way the director manages to sustain the viewer's interest. |
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Yet one may also feel overcome by emotions in one's life , due to unexpected situation . Listen to Robert Kennedy's speech. (Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968).
drive.google.com/file/d/153b9T8oF9NA5H5yip_ZR7oSsYdHnMH7A/view?usp=sharing Say on which occasion the speech was delivered and what it is about . What was the goal of the speaker ? Which emotions are conveyed ? through which rhetorical strategies ? How did they crowd respond .
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Task:
Read carefully Hamlet famous soliloquy. Make sure you fully understand its meaning and the emotions it expresses. Then watch two great shakespearean actors interpreting it. Discuss with your classmates the version you find the most convincing and accurate . Give your reasons.
drive.google.com/file/d/19UeBiMbQKA7Osvxb26wV4CmMHBK9fTPB/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1izwD-1YLv_tBexCszvFZCjf4AMPCiL9h/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/19UeBiMbQKA7Osvxb26wV4CmMHBK9fTPB/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1izwD-1YLv_tBexCszvFZCjf4AMPCiL9h/view?usp=sharing
hamlet_soliloquy.docx | |
File Size: | 14 kb |
File Type: | docx |
hamlet-william-shakespeare__1_.pdf | |
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Romanticism
Growing industry and scientific inquiry in the Age of Reason created a yearning for the more emotional, imaginative side of human nature, leading to the literary and artistic movement of Romanticism.
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Now study the works by three famous and emblematic poets of the movement and highlight their similitudes and specificities.
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For Wordsworth, poetry “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling,” and the life of many Romantics seem to perfectly match this definition. Watch this extract from Bright Star and comment on the way Jane Campion has managed to portray Keat's tortured soul .
Poem:drive.google.com/file/d/12UUo4jmFqtOH3dmHEPX9zIV26llE87Cz/view?usp=sharing
Bright Star : drive.google.com/file/d/1ISSxZyDHriJ-5riz_7pjZy4mQbqSSumw/view?usp=sharing
Poem:drive.google.com/file/d/12UUo4jmFqtOH3dmHEPX9zIV26llE87Cz/view?usp=sharing
Bright Star : drive.google.com/file/d/1ISSxZyDHriJ-5riz_7pjZy4mQbqSSumw/view?usp=sharing
The Brontë sisters are also iconic writers from the 19th century . But do they actually belong to the romantic movement ? Study the two extracts below. Then debate on the matter with the whole class.
drive.google.com/file/d/1HFM0FIcaMoRGlQ_tDkePO0vUqn4VJ8SO/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1SWxHPPe39bFdcBzFl71HBeN7na7vrdc3/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1HFM0FIcaMoRGlQ_tDkePO0vUqn4VJ8SO/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1SWxHPPe39bFdcBzFl71HBeN7na7vrdc3/view?usp=sharing
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Transcendentalism
“The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Transcendentalist
“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle
- Read the mind map on transcendentalism.
- Study the text by Ralph Waldo Emerson and explain why it is regarded as the founding text of American Transcendentalism.
- Then turn to the excerpt from Walden and say how Thoreau applied the theories of the Transcendentalist movement when he decided to retreat to Walden.
- Finally study Walt Whitman's poem and compare it to the excerpts by Emerson and Thoreau.
- To what extent can we say that transcendentalism borrows a lot from romanticism ?
transcendentalism_mind_map.docx | |
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A universal language
A/ Life in a day
Beyond time, artistic or literary movements, emotions can be conveyed with accuracy and efficiency in many different ways.
The modernist novel by Virginia Woolf and the novel it inspired Mickael Cunningham are the perfect illustrations of the timelessness of emotins and feelings as well as the need to express them.
Compare and contrast the incipit to an extract in The Hours. (explain Clarissa's nickname, define the tone of the passage, discuss the style ...)
Finally, watch the first chapter of the film adaptation of The Hours (2002) and :
The modernist novel by Virginia Woolf and the novel it inspired Mickael Cunningham are the perfect illustrations of the timelessness of emotins and feelings as well as the need to express them.
Compare and contrast the incipit to an extract in The Hours. (explain Clarissa's nickname, define the tone of the passage, discuss the style ...)
Finally, watch the first chapter of the film adaptation of The Hours (2002) and :
- Describe the effect of the novel on each of the three women.
- Say how the novel in shown in each of the three stories.
- Explain why a novel, which shows a very ordinary day in the life of one woman (Mrs. Dalloway) should be of such significance? If Mrs. Dallowayís day is "normal", then how does this differ from the day that all three women experience? In what ways is the day of significance to each of the three main characters?
- Analyse the way the director manage to visually and emotionally connect the three stories.
- drive.google.com/file/d/1fZS6K8RqWx0gksKahYVWwQl8r0cbZJjH/view?usp=sharing
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O’Neill’s autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into the Night is a shattering depiction of a day in the dreary life of a couple and their two sons. James Tyrone, a semiretired actor, is vain, self-obsessed, and miserly; his wife, Mary, feels worthless and retreats into a morphine-induced haze. Jamie, their older son, is a bitter alcoholic. James refuses to acknowledge the illness of his consumptive younger son, Edmund. As Mary sinks into hallucination and madness, father and sons confront each other in searing scenes that reveal their hidden motives and interdependence.
Source :https://www.britannica.com/
Source :https://www.britannica.com/
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Read the excerpt from Eugene O'Neil's play.
How does the playwright manage to explore the tension and fragility of family bonds. How does the excerpt highlight the interaction between guilt and blame ? How do you understand its title ? Based on the information contained in the infographic opposite, explain why O'Neill is seen as an expressionist. Comment on Katharine Hepburn's performance in the Sydney Lumet 1962 film adaptation. Support your opinion with precise examples. drive.google.com/file/d/1Fjp6pdo6xuF5WD1pFqrQGvrxNwoGhmdt/view?usp=sharing |
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B/ Life & death
Francis Bacon is well-known for his paintings of distorted bodies. The triptych underneath was painted after his lover commited suicide.
How do you understand it ?How do you feel about it ? Comment on the choice of the colours , of the format and the symbolism of the composition.
For further information on the artist : www.francis-bacon.com/paintings
How do you understand it ?How do you feel about it ? Comment on the choice of the colours , of the format and the symbolism of the composition.
For further information on the artist : www.francis-bacon.com/paintings
Study the poem by Sylvia Plath drive.google.com/file/d/1xPAzWGbMNUd_e7b_e9OOcNFDBSN2ql95/view?usp=sharing
the watch the last video clip released by David Bowie. drive.google.com/file/d/1BBKoNgDpsEuvxQZDeM7PfMWvQtfqpgda/view?usp=sharing
How can you account for the similitude in the title ? Are the feelings conveyed similar to the poem ? Analyse the symbols and the devices used by the singer/song-writer.
Which emotions is the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham* summoning? drive.google.com/file/d/1DiQ09ycG_oGtabakxJaYc0l00KDwYaxJ/view?usp=sharing
What about William Carlos Williams in his short poem ?
*marthagraham.org/history/
the watch the last video clip released by David Bowie. drive.google.com/file/d/1BBKoNgDpsEuvxQZDeM7PfMWvQtfqpgda/view?usp=sharing
How can you account for the similitude in the title ? Are the feelings conveyed similar to the poem ? Analyse the symbols and the devices used by the singer/song-writer.
Which emotions is the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham* summoning? drive.google.com/file/d/1DiQ09ycG_oGtabakxJaYc0l00KDwYaxJ/view?usp=sharing
What about William Carlos Williams in his short poem ?
*marthagraham.org/history/
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Final task :
Widely regarded as a pioneer of new media art, Bill Viola creates works that combine filmed images and music in what he calls “total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound.” With roots in both Eastern and Western art and spiritual traditions, Viola’s visual and sound installations impart a transcendental experience of their own, alternating between electronic scores and silence, and pursuing timeless themes like birth, death, and extremes of emotion. ( source :https://www.artsy.net/).
You have to create the audioguide to comment on one of his 5 artworks displayed below . Don't forget to make a brief description of the artwork, talk about the artistic devices used, the impression created...)
www.billviola.com/
You have to create the audioguide to comment on one of his 5 artworks displayed below . Don't forget to make a brief description of the artwork, talk about the artistic devices used, the impression created...)
www.billviola.com/
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